Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Review

This is a discussion on Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Review within the Game Reviews forum, part of the Trophy Guides, Reviews & Articles; Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
by Nagflar
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Basic Information:
Developer: Platinum Games
Publisher: Konami
North American Release Date: ...

Metal Gear Rising was first announced over 3 years ago, promising to work as the missing link between MGS2 and 4. However, the project suffered many changes and finished up being given to Platinum Games, becoming an entirely different game. Promising great gameplay and a new story taking place after MGS4, Rising has hit the stores and given us a glimpse of what the Metal Gear franchise can be like on an entirely different genre.

Gameplay

Metal Gear Rising's first impressin is that the game is yet another hack n' slash brought to you by Platinum Games, meaning that if you've played Bayonetta or Vanquish, you'll feel right at home, for it plays smoothly and lets you to chain attacks together in order to build up devastating combos that allow you to defeat your enemies swiftly. Naturally, this simply shows how different this Metal Gear is from the others, and goes on to prove just how deadly a Cyborg Ninja really is. The game really sends out the message that Raiden is now an overpowered Cyborg with insane destructive capabilities and the ability to cut in half whatever gets in his way thanks to his High-Frequency Blade, and does so excellently, allowing you to even run stealthly like a ninja (an ability they accurately named Ninja Dash) and perform amazing assassinations on unaware enemies.

This being a true hack n' slash, the Energy Blade is obviously not the only weapon you'll have at your disposal. Throughout the game you'll find yourself fighting a couple of bosses who, as per usual, will allow you to get yourself a new secondary weapon after you defeat them. While they're very helpful to build up your combos and deal a lot of damage to your enemies, you'll find yourself using your High-frequeny Blade more often than not. All this depends, however, on your playstyle and just how much you choose to depend or use them.

In addition to this, the game adds what's arguably one of the most impressive and satisfying features I've seen in quite a while: Blade Mode. Blade Mode is activated by pressing L1, as well as during certain QTEs and after parrying, and makes Raiden take out his sword and take a stand, allowing the player to cut almost anything in any direction he wishes to at the cost of depleting Raiden's energy levels. This means you can cut an enemy any way you want, and the the amazing thing is that the game recognizes the patterns you cut into the enemy (unless they're very small parts, then it isn't as exact). This is obviously one of the most entertaining, gratifying and gory parts of the game, and I assure you you'll do it as much as you can.

Cutting people to pieces is a lot of fun.

As mentioned before, there is a feature called "parrying", which is pretty much like Bayonetta's Witch Time. The whole parrying system consists of moving the analog stick in the direction of your enemy and pressing the square button just as he is about to attack you. This will lead to one of the best features of the game, known as Zandatsu, which consists of Raiden dealing a counter-attack by slashing his foe and then instantly going into a bullet-time Blade Mode, allowing you to deal killing blows without having to deal much damage to your enemies. This not only looks great, but its also essential during most of the boss battles and when playing on the higher difficulties, for some of your enemies are capable of dealing high amounts of damage and you'll find yourself in need of cutting off their armor or weapons in order to beat them.

However, there's more than just satisfaction and gore to the Blade Mode, for your enemies carry within them energy-filled parts that Raiden will take from their bodies if they're cut in a specific spot during Zandatsu, and when acquired, Raiden will absorb them and replenish all his health and energy. This is without a doubt essential and a very nice feature, for it allows you to be a little reckless when encountering new enemies and not worry as much about seeing your health get depleted. However, if you happen to find yourself in a place with no enemies around, the game has an item system in place which lets you pick up various things that'll replenish your health or energy levels, as well as a few weapons such as rocket launchers or the legendary Cardboard Box made famous by Solid Snake.

Singleplayer

Rising follows Raiden's story four years after the events of MGS4. Having liberated the world from the Patriots and their nanomachine-controlled soldiers, the world is now relying on Cyborg techonology to create super soldiers. This leads to Raiden, still a Cyborg Ninja, to work for a PMC known as Maverick Securities, who specializes in providing security to whoever can pay for it.

While protecting the Prime Minister from an unspecified African country, Raiden and his colleagues find themselves attacked by another PCM group named Desperado, consisting of overpowered Cyborg supersoldiers who quickly dispatch Raiden's forces and force him to battle them. This leads to the Prime Minister being murdered and Raiden getting beaten to near-death by one of Desperado's members, named Samuel Rodrigues, who you can basically call a Cyborg Samurai. This leads to Raiden being re-enhanced with even more cybernetic implants, and sends him on a quest to avenge the Prime Minister and find out what it is that Desprado trully wants, uncovering a world-threatening conspiracy that takes him around the world and makes him meet both new and familiar faces.

Samuel, the "Cyborg Samurai", and probably the most interesting character in the whole game.

The story is as far-fetched as previous Metal Gear ones, but Kojima's absence during development (and mostly when it comes to the script) is notorious. Not only are the new characters that are introduced rather uninteresting and boring (with the exception of maybe Samuel), but the story as a whole lacks that deep philosophy-related punch. Even when faced with Raiden's conflicting emotions one can't help but wonder something is missing, and the way the story's progression handles said issues feels rather uninspired.

The levels themselves are also very uninspired when compared to previous Metal Gear games, but this is completely understandable due to the game being a hack n' slash. They all are linear, featuring enemies scattered around for you to fight and pulverize if you please to do so, and contain a lot of destructible things for you to cut up as you please. The big downside, however, is how short these levels are. There are only 7 chapters in the game, and they all can be completed in about an hour, making the game last from 4 to 7 hours depending on how fast you are at hacking cyborgs (and that's including cutscenes). However, the game does try to offer some replayability by adding scores to the Chapters and the individual battles inside them, and by adding a small number of Virtual Reality (VR) missions to complete. The only reason you'd find yourself trying to get an S on all of the chapters (and 1st place in the missions) would be to earn experience points in order to upgrade Raiden's abilities and earn trophies, though.

To make things worse, one of the franchise's most notable characteristics, the boss battles, have also suffered. Long forgotten have been those memorable battles against Psycho Mantis or The End, and in their stead you find yourself fighting a bunch of generic bosses such as a Pole-wielding femme fatale or a Ninja capable of moving faster than a bullet. Thankfully, the last few battles prove to be a little more unique and entertaining, but don't raise your hopes too much.

Boss battles mostly feel uninspired, as does the game's story. The game looks good, though, so that's a plus.

All in all, Rising has a decent and well-developed story (levels included), but falls short of expectations and certainly leaves you wishing for more, especially seeing how the game can be completed in less than a day.

Technical

While Rising may play very well, it doesn't look as great (even if it does look good). The graphics, while good, don't really stand out as much as they could, and even the cutscenes leave a little to be desired. That aside, though, the game looks good, and performs even better. During my time with it, I never ran into a single issue, be it the frame-rate dropping or the graphics tearing up, or something else entirely. This proves that Platinum has actually worked on making the game run smoothly, and succeeded at it.

The soundtrack and the sound quality are also quite good. The score fits the situations very well and switches from soft to heavy music if the situation demands it, which even allows you to know when you'll have to fight your way through an area or not (in typical videogame fashion).

Trophies

Most of the trophies for Rising consist of finishing the story and destroying a certain number of enemies. However, there are a few that'll truly make people rage, such as defeating bosses without being hit on Hard (or above) difficulty, or finishing the game on Revengeance difficulty with an S rank on every chapter. There's also one for beating the highscores on all VR missions and so on. The list itself isn't horribly hard, but it'll prove quite troublesome to those inexperienced with the genre or the game's mechanics.

Closing Thoughts

Rising is a welcomed addition to the Metal Gear franchise, even if it falls short of expectations. While many won't enjoy the story as much as with the other games, the exceptionally entertaining gameplay will surely prove to be enough to satisfy newcomers and old players alike.

Gameplay: 9/10The brightest spot in the game. Satisfying and entertaining like few games out there, making great work of the typical hack n' slash formula, even if it feels a tad bit repetitive near the end.

Singleplayer: 7/10Short, uninspired and offers little replayability, but an enjoyable ride while it lasts.

Technical: 8/10Looks good, sounds great and performs amazingly. How they managed to make Blade Mode work so well is beyond me.

Good review, although I would have given the SP more of an 8. Just because it's short, doesn't make it bad.

It's short, the story is above-average at best and there's not really that much replayability to keep you playing. It might be enjoyable, but it's the kind of game you most likely play once and you're done with it, like Call of Duty.

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It's short, the story is above-average at best and there's not really that much replayability to keep you playing. It might be enjoyable, but it's the kind of game you most likely play once and you're done with it, like Call of Duty.

Oh I know, I'm not defending the story as much as I'm just defending that short doesn't necessarily mean bad.

Must say that your score is pretty fair and you have done a fine review Nags, though considering your venom towards Bayonetta, i'm surprised you were the reviewer in one way but not in another.

Uninteresting NPC's and bosses? Mostly agree they are forgettable, Samuel is good if a little too similar to Vamp in design, but the final Boss is brilliantly dickish. He feels like a threat despite the outward appearance.
The boss battles, i found them to be fun and different from a lot out there. As stated, there are some flat Boss personalities but the gaming dynamic for their battles is frenetic, fresh and enjoyable.
Considering the denouncement most 'fans' of Metal Gear made upon learning Platinum were running the show, i'm surprised anyone had expectations for this game that didn't involve it eating fecal matter and ceasing to be, if you were into the idea of it early on, it was because you knew it would be very much different to Metal Gear of normality. A Vanquish or Bayonetta style of game with a good coat of MG gloss on top to get some in jokes and nods in.
Almost no point in comparing the story to regular Metal Gear games, it was never going to be as brilliantly in depth and convoluted, i for one, saw only a lump of big dumb O.T.T. action nonsense and Rising delivered that in spades.

Rising is far superior to certain other slash em ups out this year, Blade Mode is great fun, the soundtrack is perfectly pitched between retro and modern, the story is pleasingly stupid and Raiden is furthered as a Badass. It helps that it's only real flaws are an erratic camera and some sterile enviroments.

It's short, the story is above-average at best and there's not really that much replayability to keep you playing. It might be enjoyable, but it's the kind of game you most likely play once and you're done with it, like Call of Duty.

CoD is trash bro can't compare. Review was on par with what I thought. I play the hell out of this game from time to time and yes the story was boring in the beginning (R-01- R-02 for sure), but I did like it a lot so. Good review Nagflar.

This game was epic the game play was epic the story line was epic the soundtrack was epic i absolutely loved this game i don't think it was repetitive but i can see as to why people would think so its probably because your playing it on easy mode and just ninja running and slashing try revengeance mode where you have to parry that's way more fun unless your a noob haha.

It's short, the story is above-average at best and there's not really that much replayability to keep you playing. It might be enjoyable, but it's the kind of game you most likely play once and you're done with it, like Call of Duty.

It's a good hack n' slash, and like most (goods) hack n' slash games, it's short and doesn't last too much, but it's a very enjoyable ride while it lasts. The only thing that makes it stand out less is it being a Metal Gear title and the story not being on-par with previous ones (even if it does fit in the ovoer the top and convulted story-telling categories), and the one thing that makes it stand above pretty much everything else is Blade Mode. I'm still amazed at them managing to pull it off lol.

Originally Posted by Dudemaximum

This game was epic the game play was epic the story line was epic the soundtrack was epic i absolutely loved this game i don't think it was repetitive but i can see as to why people would think so its probably because your playing it on easy mode and just ninja running and slashing try revengeance mode where you have to parry that's way more fun unless your a noob haha.

I rented the game, therefore, I didn't count with enough time to fully try Revengeance (just played a few minutes of that, and it was fun, albeit a little hard). However, the playthrough I did was done on Hard, and instead of consisting of smashing the hell out of the buttons, it consisted of bidding my time and parrying everything to play it safe. Therefore, it was repetitive as well, but in a different way.

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